MPs’ Expenses: What Next?

June 22, 2009

telegraph460

The Daily Telegraph’s bumper MPs’ expenses special supplement made for fulsome weekend reading, with an excellent cover image to boot (hewn from the Guardian).

For those curious about the machinations underlying the Telegraph’s scoop, the Independent has more here. As is now well known, three newspapers turned down the story before Robert Winnett, the Telegraph’s deputy political editor, saw its potential and paid a six figure sum to John Wick, the former SAS man who was hawking a disk containing the full monty of expenses’ information around Fleet Street.

Subsequently, in its dubious wisdom the government redacted detail of sundry receipts in its so-called ‘disclosure’ of information about MPs’ expenses. The Guardian has now taken up the baton, with what it calls “an experiment in crowdsourcing“. In other words, the Guardian has enlisted the help of an eager public in unravelling what lurks beneath the claims.

The Guardian’s move is notable for its feel of Web 2.0 zeitgeist, but at least one media sage is not convinced. Blade bumped into the man behind a highly popular televised politcal satire at a party on the weekend, a formidable character whose privacy Blade is not willing to infringe. But even in his anonymous guise, what he had to say was intriguing: “The whole saga of the MPs’ expenses is extraordinary. But what next? Now that we’ve revealed each and every politician to be venal and corrupt, what are we going to do?”

 

Comments

Please submit comments to Swordplay below.

Not so right said Fred

February 2, 2012
fred hat

So Farewell, then, Sir Fred Goodwin.

Now you are just Fred.

Not Right Said Fred, but plain Fred.

The Forfeiture Committee did for you.

No one had heard of it before,

But Dave said it had to act, and it did.

Trouble is that no one knows what to think.

Is it ‘Alas, poor Fred‘,

Or ‘Hurray! Sir Fred is dead!’?

We don’t know.

Do you?

By A. Mob, aged 1,378 and a half.

London Goes AWOL

January 31, 2012
CNN

STOP PRESS:

Fed up with being stuck on the Thames in south-east England, London yesterday decided to move. In a dramatic gesture which augurs ill for the Olympics, the city upped sticks and relocated to East Anglia.

Lawyers were not consulted about the move, and the city’s precise motivation remains unclear. However, financiers fear that London’s decision is a sign that it wishes to downsize. Moreover, a source from London said: “We no longer want to be Britain’s seat of power. If the Scots can deregulate, why can’t we? East Anglia is a nice place where nothing happens. It’s time for a quiet life. Please respect our right to privacy.”

Elsewhere, Birmingham did not do anything, but Manchester was seen to be packing its bags. “There’s an opportunity for us,” said Manchester. “We can become London.”

East Anglia said: “We don’t mind. It’ll be refreshing to be associated with something other than fens and flatness.”

A cartologist at CNN, which broke the extraordinary news, was later fired.

An excellent ad if ever there was one

January 25, 2012
legovader

We seem to be visually led this week but sometimes words proliferate far too much and letting an image do the talking is no bad thing. That’s another way of saying that ACCESS Agency’s work with Lego is absolutely top drawer.